The Spun’s 2018 College Football Staff Picks: Week 12

The Spun

It is the second-to-last week of the college football season, which means a less-than-excellent set of games. The main culprit for College Football Week 12 is the SEC, from which most members have tune-ups for next week’s rivalry clashes.

That means we have a bunch of SEC vs. FCS and Group of Five games, and not a ton of apparent upset risks, although as we know, college football will surprise us more often than not.

Even beyond the league where it “means more,” there aren’t a ton of flashy games.

The headliner is probably the Top 12 game between College Football Playoff aspirant Notre Dame, the No. 3 team in the country once again this week, and newly-minted No. 12 Syracuse.

The Fighting Irish and Orange face off in Notre Dame’s “Shamrock Series” for the season at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. Notre Dame is a solid favorite, but analysts have been pointing to this game as a final challenge for ND for weeks.

After that, this week’s College GameDay game between No. 11 UCF and No. 24 Cincinnati, and No. 15 Texas vs. No. 16 Iowa State in the Big 12 are the only other two games between ranked teams.

After 11 weeks, here are the staff pick standings:

1.

Matt Hladik

319-92

2.

Chris Rosvoglou

315-96

3.

Matt Lombardi

313-98

4.

Andrew McCarty

312-99

5.

Dan Lyons

311-100

6.

Tzvi Machlin

298-113

7.

Steve Driscoll

296-115

8.

Andrew Holleran

295-116

Matt Hladik remains in first place, and extended his lead last week. There are eight games separating the top five, but only two full weeks left for picks.

Here are our picks for the upcoming week. We choose every game involving a Power Five/Top 25 team.

(*On mobile, our College Football Week 12 picks are best viewed in landscape mode.)